Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum (ThesCRA) is a major multivolume reference work on all known aspects of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman cults and rituals. Providing both sweeping overview and in-depth investigation, ThesCRA covers the period from Homeric times (1000 B.C.) to late Roman times (A.D. 400).
The first three volumes, published in 2005, deal with dynamic elements of cult: divination; prayer, gestures, and acts of prayer; gestures and acts of veneration; oaths; maledictions; profanation; magic; and consecration and foundation rites. The last two volumes in the set move on to static elements of cult--cult places and their depictions in antiquity in volume IV, and the personnel of cults in volume V. The major contributors to volume IV are Anneliese Kossatz-Deissmann, Francesco Marcattili, Ulrich Sinn, and Mario Torelli; those for volume V are Stella Georgoudi, Tonio Holscher, Ingrid Krauskopf, Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge, and John Scheid. The index for the five-volume set will be published in August 2006. ThesCRA was developed by the eminent group of scholars who published the eight double-volumes of LIMC (Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae).

One of the elements of the Eightfold Path the Buddha taught is Right Concentration: the one-pointedness of mind that, together with ethics, livelihood, meditation, and so forth, leads to the ultimate freedom from suffering. The Jhanas are the method the Buddha himself taught for achieving Right Concentration. They are a series of eight successive states, beginning with bliss and moving on toward radically nonconceptual states. The fact that they can usually be achieved only during prolonged meditation retreat tends to keep them shrouded in mystery. Leigh Brasington is here to unshroud them. He takes away the mystique and gives instructions for them in plain, accessible language, noting the various pitfalls to avoid along the way, and then providing a wealth of material on the theory of jhana practice--all geared toward the practitioner rather than the scholar.